


Just a Flesh Wound

by rainbowgoddess



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-09
Updated: 2011-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-17 19:24:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/180356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowgoddess/pseuds/rainbowgoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Danny sustains a minor gunshot injury, Steve takes him to the emergency room. But a mix-up at the hospital with another gunshot patient causes a nurse to tell Steve that Danny is dead. When Steve finds out that Danny is not dead, he confesses that he is in love with Danny. Danny then has to decide how he feels about Steve. He's definitely attracted to him, but is he in love with him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just a Flesh Wound

Danny Williams thought that getting shot was extremely annoying. It wasn't like he hadn't been shot before. Getting shot was an occupational hazard when your partner was Steve McGarrett. So the fact that he had been shot was not a huge surprise to Danny.

However, it hurt.

Steve was unusually solicitous of his partner. He blamed himself for Danny being shot. They were both wearing bulletproof vests, but the vests didn't cover the arms, and Danny had been shot in the arm.

"It's no big deal, babe," Danny tried to reassure his worried partner. "We'll go to the hospital and I'll get it seen to. Kono and Chin can deal with the scene here." That scene included the man who had shot Danny, whom they had had to keep Steve from killing in retaliation.

At the hospital there was not an exceptionally long wait, which Danny was relieved about, because he had a sneaking suspicion that Steve would make a big deal if Danny had to wait very long. He'd pull out either his badge or his gun, or both.

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked in concern as they sat in the waiting room. He hated seeing Danny hurt. He was Danny's partner, and it was his job to protect Danny. Seeing Danny get shot had scared him to death, even if it was only a flesh wound. Something happening to take Danny away from him was one of Steve's biggest fears.

"It hurts," Danny admitted. "But I've been hurt worse. I can live with it. Not like I haven't been shot before." Danny had actually been shot the first time he'd worked with Steve.

"Worse? When was that?" Steve wanted to know.

"In Jersey. I was shot in the gut. It was pretty bad. I got through it, though, and I'll get through this." He winced at the pain in his arm.

Steve got an idea. "Tell me about Grace," he said.

"Tell you what about Grace?"

"Anything. Tell me a story. Tell me something about her that you're proud of. Tell me something funny that she does. It'll take your mind off the pain."

So Danny started talking, and he found that Steve was right. When he was talking about his daughter, the pain wasn't quite so bad.

When he was finally called into the examining room, Danny said to Steve: "Could you go get me a clean shirt? I've kind of bled all over this one. There's one in my office at headquarters."

Steve protested, saying he didn't want to leave Danny alone.

"They won't let you in to the exam room anyway," Danny pointed out. "It's not that far away. I'll be here waiting."

Steve left under protest, and Danny was taken into the examining room. Before he could be patched up, though, a nurse came in. "Doctor, they're bringing in a patient with a more serious gunshot wound. We'll have to move Mr. Williams to another room."

Danny hopped off the table and followed the nurse to another room. He had to wait quite some time for the doctor to come back; the other case was a lot more urgent. Fortunately, they gave him some pain medication while he waited.

When Steve arrived back at the hospital, he looked around for any signs of Danny. There were none. So he sat in the waiting room and tried to be patient. He flipped through the outdated magazines. He checked his text messages a few dozen times. He played some stupid game that had come with his phone. Still no sign of Danny. The shifts must have changed while he was gone, because he didn't recognize any of the nurses.

Finally he went to the examining room where he'd seen them take Danny and poked his head in. It was empty. He caught the attention of one of the nurses. "Could you tell me where the patient is who was in this room? I was supposed to meet him here."

The nurse checked her clipboard. "The gunshot patient?" she asked.

"Yeah, him. He's my partner. I brought him a clean shirt."

The expression on the nurse's face turned very serious. "What is your relationship to the patient?"

"He's my partner," Steve repeated, getting a little nervous at the nurse's expression.

"The patient in this room passed away half an hour ago," she told him. "I'm sorry. Do you want to talk to the doctor?"

"No," Steve said. He wasn't sure if he was saying no to talking to the doctor or no, Danny couldn't be dead. "His wound wasn't serious. Just a flesh wound."

"Sometimes wounds can look minor on the outside, but inside there's a lot of damage," the nurse told him. "That's probably what happened to your friend. Look, there's a chapel right down the hall there," she pointed, "and the hospital offers grief counselling. You can pick up a pamphlet at the admitting desk." Then she hurried away to attend to her duties.

Steve wanted to hit something. He wanted to scream. He couldn't do either of those things in the hospital. He walked into the empty examining room and looked around. How could this have happened? It was impossible. Danny couldn't have died from a minor arm wound — could he?

"Danny," he found himself thinking out loud. "How could you do this to me? How could you leave me? I'd only just found you. I never got the chance to tell you how I really feel. I never got to tell you...."

Danny hurried toward the examining room where he'd been taken first before being moved for the other gunshot patient. Steve wouldn't know he'd been moved, and if he heard that the patient in that room had died....

He arrived to hear Steve talking. "How could you do this to me? How could you leave me? I'd only just found you. I never got the chance to tell you how I really feel. I never got to tell you...."

"Tell me what?"

This couldn't be happening. He was hallucinating. He couldn't possibly be hearing Danny's voice. Danny was dead.

"Steve? Hello?"

Slowly, Steve turned around. Sure enough, there was his partner, his Danno, standing right there. "Danny?" he said in a shaky voice.

Danny came toward him. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I... You... They told me you were dead. They told me you were dead."

Oh, shit. They'd told Steve that the patient in this room had died without telling him that it was a different patient. "That wasn't me, babe. That was some other guy. Much more serious gunshot wound. They had to move me to a different room." He rubbed his free hand up and down Steve's arm in an attempt at reassurance.

Steve threw his arms around Danny and hugged him tightly. "I thought I'd lost you. I thought you were dead. Don't do that to me again, okay?"

"Ouch. Careful of the arm, there. Um, I'll try not to do it again. Now, what was it that you never got to tell me?"

"That I love you," Steve answered.

"Oh. Okay. Well, I love you too."

Steve realized that Danny didn't know what he meant. "No, not like that. I mean, I love you. Like this." And he kissed Danny to demonstrate.

This was something Danny hadn't been expecting. He wasn't entirely surprised to hear Steve loved him, but he'd figured it would be in a brotherly fashion. This had come out of nowhere.

"Steve, do you really mean it? You're not just saying this because you thought I was dead?"

"I mean it. I just wish I'd told you sooner. I always thought there was plenty of time to decide how and when to tell you. What happened today made me realize that maybe there's not as much time as I thought."

Danny wasn't sure what he wanted to say in response to Steve's declaration. "Look, they're probably going to want to use this room any minute. We should get out of here. Your place?"

As they drove in mostly uncomfortable silence, Steve searched for something to talk about, a safe subject. "How's your arm?" he finally asked.

"Better," Danny answered, also feeling the discomfort. "It still hurts, but they gave me some good drugs."

They lapsed back into silence, so Steve turned on the radio. He could hardly believe it when Dr. Hook's "Sexy Eyes," came on.

Sexy eyes, sexy eyes  
Gettin' down with you  
I wanna move with you  
Sexy eyes

"You have got to be kidding," Danny groaned.

"What's wrong with Dr. Hook?" Steve asked.

"What's wrong? It's a terrible song. It's corny. It's stupid. It's also something like 30 years old."

"It's a classic," Steve argued. He drove for another few minutes, then pulled the car over.

"What? Why are you stopping?" Danny wanted to know.

"Because I wanted to do this." Steve unfastened his seat belt, leaned over and kissed Danny.

He was surprised by Steve's sudden move, but Danny couldn't help responding to the kiss. His body definitely wasn't confused about his feelings for his partner, even if the rest of him was. However, he wasn't about to jump Steve in the front seat of the car, so he reluctantly ended the kiss. "A 30-year-old song makes you want to kiss me?" he asked.

Steve smiled. "I associate the song with you," he said. "It reminds me of the time we were looking for the ambassador's daughter, and we went to the club. Even though we were working, I wanted to dance with you. I saw all those people together, and I wanted that for you and me. And I do think you have sexy eyes."

"If I recall correctly," Danny responded, "on that particular day you had just come from being with your girlfriend, and you were going back to her, too."

Looking embarrassed, Steve sighed. "I was with Catherine, but I knew already that I preferred being with you to being with her."

Hearing that, Danny thought: _Wow, Steve has it bad._ Then he thought: _What can I do about it?_ He was definitely attracted to Steve, but otherwise his feelings were very much up in the air. He knew he had to be honest.

"Steve," he sighed. "I'm attracted to you. When you kiss me, it's all I can do to keep from jumping you right here in the car. If you wanted to be what they call friends with benefits, I'd go for that. But I can't say that I love you. I'm not ready for that yet."

Steve tried to hide his disappointment. He knew that while a "friends with benefits" arrangement might be fun in the short term, he wouldn't be satisfied with it in the long term. Such an arrangement could end up hurting his friendship with Danny, and he valued that friendship. Then he thought of something.

"You said 'yet,'" he pointed out. "Does that mean...?"

Danny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It means I need time. Right now this is all really new to me. I've never even kissed a guy before, let alone been in an actual relationship. And right now I'm not even thinking too clearly, because I'm on painkillers.

"I won't say no. I won't say never. All I will say is: wait. Can you do that for me?" He opened his eyes and looked into Steve's.

"I can wait," Steve agreed. "I will wait for as long as you want me to." He looked at his partner, who appeared very tired. "Want me to take you home?"

"Please," Danny sighed. "I feel like I could sleep for the next week. Must be the drugs."

When they arrived at Danny's place, Steve said, "Take the next couple of days off, okay? Take some time to recover."

"Okay," Danny said tiredly. "Thanks."

"Are you going to be okay on your own?" Steve asked in concern.

"Steve, it's just a flesh wound, as the saying goes. The drugs make me sleepy. That's all. I'll be fine."

Steve reluctantly let Danny go, wishing he could kiss him again.

That night, Steve couldn't sleep. He kept going over the events of the day in his head. He thought of the sick feeling he'd had in his gut when he'd been told Danny was dead, and the almost lightheaded feeling of relief when Danny had appeared in the hospital room. He thought of how it had felt to kiss Danny.

He knew that he couldn't push Danny into making a decision. This wasn't the kind of thing that could, or should, be rushed. But he wished he could.

Steve finally fell asleep, but his sleep was not restful. He kept dreaming about Danny being shot, and about the nurse telling him that Danny was dead.

The next morning Steve could barely keep himself from calling Danny. He wanted to hear his partner's voice. He wanted a concrete reminder that Danny wasn't dead. But he forced himself to wait until the middle of the day before calling to check on Danny.

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked.

"Better," Danny answered. "Still hurts, though. And trying to do anything one-handed is a pain in the ass."

Steve had an idea. "Can I come over tonight?"

"Why?"

"I'll cook dinner for you. It'll be at least one thing you don't have to try to do one-handed."

Danny thought about it for a moment, then answered, "All right. I'll see you tonight."

Steve picked up a couple of grocery bags full of food, and he arrived at Danny's place ready to cook. Danny watched him in bemusement. "So — boy scouts or SEALS?" he asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Where did you learn to cook — in the boy scouts, or in the SEALS?"

"Neither," Steve answered. "My Dad taught me."

"Your father taught you to cook? I'm impressed."

"He told me it was a good way to catch girls," Steve admitted. "He said 'women like men who can cook.'" He wondered if this applied to men who liked other men. He'd never dated a man before, and he had no idea whether or not Danny could cook. "Can you cook?" he asked.

Danny shrugged. "I get by. I don't exist on takeout or anything, but I'm not a gourmet cook, either. Grace doesn't seem to mind my cooking."

The mention of Grace made Steve realize suddenly that if he and Danny got together, their relationship would have to include Danny's daughter. He mentally filed that information under the category of "things I will have to discuss with Danny at some point."

The evening went by much too quickly for Steve's liking. He and Danny didn't discuss their relationship at all. Steve kept hoping that Danny would say something, but Danny didn't, and Steve had promised not to pressure him.

More than anything, Steve wanted to kiss Danny goodnight when he left. But he didn't. They didn't even shake hands, since Danny's arm was in a sling. They just sort of nodded goodbye to each other as Steve got in his car.

Danny was back at work the next day, though his arm was still in a sling. Steve had offered him another day off, but Danny had refused. It was the first time they'd worked together since Steve had admitted his feelings for Danny, and he'd been afraid it would be awkward, but Danny was acting completely normally.

However, Steve wasn't certain he wanted Danny to act normally. He desperately wanted Danny to acknowledge what had happened between them. But work wasn't the place to do that, he realized.

It was definitely weird to go to the bar with the team after work. He knew that Chin and Kono weren't aware that anything had changed between him and Danny, but Steve felt just a bit paranoid, wondering if their teammates were watching them. It didn't help that he found himself constantly wanting to touch Danny, just to reassure himself that Danny was really here — as well as for certain other reasons.

As the four of them left the bar and started to go their separate ways, Danny called to Steve. "Steve. Come here for a minute."

Steve stopped and turned around. "What is it?"

"I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?" Steve asked curiously.

"For not pressuring me," Danny said. "I know how you feel, and I can tell it's really bugging you. But you're not putting any pressure on me, and I appreciate that. He put his free hand on Steve's shoulder . "Thank you."

Danny wished he could make a decision about his and Steve's relationship right here and now. He could tell that it was very difficult for Steve to wait. But Steve was waiting, and he hadn't said anything or tried to pressure Danny into making a decision.

Steve was his partner. Steve was his friend — probably his best friend. He knew that he was very strongly attracted to Steve, but he also knew that they couldn't base a relationship solely on their physical feelings for each other.

Steve lay his own hand on top of Danny's hand on his shoulder. He craved physical contact with Danny, but he had promised not to pressure him, and he intended to keep that promise, no matter how difficult it was. "I told you I wouldn't pressure you," he said. "I keep my word."

"I know you do," Danny said. "But I also know that it's hard for you. I wish I could make it easier for you, but I can't."

"Hey, it's hard for you, too," Steve said. "I get that. That's why I don't want to make it any harder for you. What's important is this: we're friends. We care about each other, whether it's as friends or something more. As long as we both remember that, we'll come out okay."

At that moment Danny wanted to hug Steve, but his arm being in a sling made that awkward. He kind of wanted to kiss Steve, too, but that would make things even more awkward. I wish I could be what you want me to be, he thought but didn't say. He settled for taking his hand off Steve's shoulder and squeezing his arm. "Thank you," he said. "Goodnight."

Steve watched Danny leave, until his car was out of sight, before he got into his truck and went home.

The next couple of weeks went by fairly normally. Steve and Danny didn't act any differently toward each other, and as far as they could tell, their teammates didn't notice anything unusual. Danny's arm healed, and he got rid of the sling.

Then one day Steve called Danny at home. Without preamble, he said, "Catherine's coming in to port tomorrow."

Danny sighed. "You haven't told her anything. She thinks she's still your girlfriend."

"I kind of thought I should talk to her in person. But if it bothers you...."

"Steve, what you do is up to you. I have no say in it. Look, if she makes you happy, maybe you shouldn't break up with her."

"I don't want to be with her," Steve said. "I never loved her." _Not like I love you._ "I want to be with you. Even if we stay on a just-friends basis for the rest of our natural lives, I would rather be just friends with you than be lovers with anyone else."

"You really mean that." Danny was surprised and touched by his partner's words. "You know, I'd be okay with it if you wanted to, you know, sleep with her while she's here."

"But I wouldn't be okay with it," Steve answered. Even though he and Danny weren't lovers, he would feel that he was cheating on Danny somehow if he slept with Catherine.

"Steve, I understand if you have...physical needs."

Steve laughed. "I have hands, Danny. I'll survive."

At that moment Danny really wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment, but he was human, and he was male, and he did know what Steve meant. So he tried to laugh it off. "If you say so, Babe. I won't inquire into your personal life any further."

Steve had no problem with Danny inquiring into his personal life, but he thought that he was already making Danny uncomfortable and decided not to say that. He thought that perhaps he'd already gone a little overboard in making his declaration about how he'd rather be friends with Danny than lovers with anyone else. It was true, but he was afraid that it might be seen as a subtle way of pressuring Danny into making a decision.

The next day....

This time it was Danny who called Steve. "How did it go with Catherine?"

"It went okay," Steve said. "She wasn't exactly thrilled with the news, of course, but she accepted it. I think she knew it was never going to be a long-term thing between us."

"Did you tell her why you were breaking up with her?"

"No," Steve answered. "I mean, I didn't tell her about you. I told her that now that I'm permanently here in Hawaii, and she's still going out to sea on a regular basis, it doesn't make sense for us to have a relationship when we can only see each other a couple of times a year."

He'd told her there was no one else, but he'd been able to tell that she didn't believe him. He wasn't sure if it was a lie to tell her that there wasn't anyone else. He was in love with Danny, but for now, at least, he and Danny weren't together.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Steve answered, touched by his partner's concern. "I'm just sorry I had to hurt Catherine. But there wasn't any way to do this without hurting her. But I'm sure she'll find someone else before long."

They finished their conversation with some small talk before hanging up their phones.

Danny felt a little guilty about Steve's breakup with Catherine. He knew it had been Steve's choice, and that he'd even tried to talk Steve out of it. But he still felt guilty, somehow.

They didn't have much time to think about Catherine, though. The very next day, Five-0 was given a new case to work on. They pursued a group of four gunrunners into a heavily forested area. For once, instead of working in their usual teams — Chin with Kono, and Danny with Steve — they split up, going four separate ways. Each of them had a suspect to chase. They had a set rendezvous point where they would meet up when the job was done.

Just to make things more nerve-racking, they found they were in an area of very spotty cell phone reception. They couldn't reliably communicate with each other.

Danny knew that Steve was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He'd done it for years before Danny had met him. It was part of his being a SEAL.

That didn't mean Danny had to like it.

What made it even more difficult was that the few times he was able to get cell phone reception, he was able to contact Chin, or Kono, but he was never able to talk to Steve. It was very frustrating. It was also very worrying. He realized that he had no way of knowing if Steve was even alive.

Not that there was any reason that Steve wouldn't be alive — right? He was just chasing a violent gunrunner. That was all. What could possibly go wrong?

After several hours of searching, Danny finally found the man he'd been looking for. Fortunately, the man was quite willing to give himself up. He'd gotten lost in the bush, and he was quite relieved to see that Danny had a GPS and knew the way back to civilization.

For his part, Danny hoped that Steve would be in "civilization" when they arrived.

Meanwhile. Steve had had no problem apprehending the man he'd been pursuing. As he walked the man, in handcuffs, back toward the meeting point he'd set up with his team, Steve wondered how Danny was doing. He had to admit that pursuing a suspect through the bush had at least taken his mind off his situation with Danny temporarily.

Still, he did worry about his partner. Danny was a lot more of a city boy than Steve was. He didn't like not being able to contact Danny, or the rest of the team, on the phone. He would be glad to see him when he got to the rendezvous.

At the rendezvous point....

Danny, Chin and Kono waited anxiously for Steve to arrive. He still wasn't answering his phone, and none of them had seen him or heard from him since they'd split up hours ago.

Just as Chin and Danny were about to go look for him, Steve finally showed up. Danny saw him first, and he saw Steve's face light up when they made eye contact.

That was when Danny knew.

He didn't know why it had taken him so long. He didn't know what had changed or how he had come to this realization. But suddenly, he knew. He knew that he loved Steve McGarrett. He knew that he and Steve belonged together.

And he couldn't wait to tell Steve that. He ran to meet his partner — straight into his arms.

If their teammates had any idea what was going on between Steve and Danny, they didn't let on. Instead they just took Steve's prisoner and left Steve and Danny to themselves. Perhaps they were used to ignoring the partners' strange behaviour.

Though they weren't exactly alone, Danny didn't care. He kissed Steve squarely on the lips.

Steve was definitely surprised by the enthusiastic greeting, but he happily returned it. "What's this for?" he asked.

"It's because I love you," Danny answered.

"I have waited so long to hear you say those words," Steve said. "I love you, too."

"I know, and I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you," Danny apologized.

"Don't apologize," Steve told Danny, holding him tightly, almost as if he were afraid Danny would disappear if he let go. "It was hard for me to wait, but I'm also glad that you took some time to think instead of jumping into something you might not have been ready for." He looked toward where their teammates stood watching them at a discreet distance. "I think we'd better get going."

The two men broke apart reluctantly and headed toward their vehicles.

"Anything you two gentlemen want to tell us?" Chin inquired.

Steve and Danny looked at each other. "Uh.... Danny and I are together."

"This is new?" Chin asked. "I thought that happened weeks ago. Took you two long enough."

Danny laughed a bit self-consciously. "I guess I'm just a bit slow sometimes."

Kono came around from where she'd been putting their suspects in the van that would transport them to HPD headquarters. "You guys finally finished? Anyone would think you hadn't seen each other in weeks instead of just a few hours."

"It wasn't just a few hours," Steve protested. "It was a lot of hours."

Kono rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Back at HPD, Steve took a look at the mountain of paperwork waiting on his desk. Then he looked over at Danny, who was faced with a similar amount of paperwork, as were Kono and Chin. He walked out of his office. "Hey, guys?" he announced, hoping that Kono didn't mind being addressed as a "guy."

His teammates looked at him expectantly.

"I think this paperwork can wait. Why don't we call it a day? The paper will still be here tomorrow — unfortunately."

"Sounds good to me," Chin said, heading for the door.

Kono rolled her eyes as if to say, "Our boss wants us to take off so he can be with his boyfriend," but she didn't argue, and she followed her cousin out with a wave toward her boss and his boyfriend.

Then Danny and Steve were finally alone. "My place?" Steve asked.

"I thought you'd never ask."

As he drove, Steve had a hard time keeping his eyes on the road. He kept wanting to look at Danny. He could hardly believe that the two of them were finally together.

When they arrived at his house, Steve tried to temporarily suppress his desire to jump Danny right then and there. He wanted to talk to Danny first and find out how he had made his decision.

"What happened to make you finally decide?" Steve wanted to know.

"I didn't like being without you today," Danny answered. "I couldn't talk to you. You weren't right there beside me like you usually are. And even when we've been separated before, I've always been able to talk to you on the phone. I couldn't do that, even.

"I was worried about you," Danny continued. "I had no idea where you were or what you were doing. I realized then that I want to be with you, all the time, permanently. When I finally saw you again, it just hit me all at once — how much I love you."

"And how much do you love me?" Steve teased.

"A whole fucking lot," Danny answered.

"Speaking of fucking...."

"Bedroom?" Danny asked with a naughty smile.

"Right fucking now," Steve answered.

END


End file.
